Review: Oracle Lighted Grill Letters

[Figmo]

I know there are way cheaper options for lighted grill letters out there - but if you want to say anything other than ”BRONCO” (or an anagram thereof)…Oracle owns that market.

Overall….I’d give these a 3.5 star rating.

1. Installation On Grill: 5 star. Really simple. I thought getting them lined up straight would be a problem but they line up with an edge on the grill so not hard at all.

2. Installation Of Wiring: 5 star. Again, really simple. Just tie all your reds together. All your blacks together. Bringing each bundle to a single red and black wire out behind the driver’s side headlight. Ground your black. Connect your red to the indicated fuse. I opted to use the “hillbilly add-a-circuit”. Which means just stripping the end of the red wire, remove the fuse, stuff the wire down down in there and jam the fuse back in to hold the wire in place.

3. Appearance: 4 star. I really don’t like the backlit styling of these letters. The lighting is barely visible in sunlight. At night - much better. But as I said - if you want to say something other than “BRONCO”….it’s the Oracle way or no way. I knew and accepted this going in.

4. Durability: 2 star. So I dropped my grill at one point during the installation and 3 of the letters broke. Basically - the tops just popped off. Yeah - I know. I dropped my grill. But even when I’m not dropping my grill I’m hitting wicked bumps and occasionally plowing into brush. So I question the durability under real life conditions as well. Time will tell on the other 2. (”other 2???” you ask?…read on)

I went ahead and made lemonade out of lemons after I got over the horror of seeing those 3 letters break. So I intentionally popped off a 4th letter and took the opportunity to paint them closer to body color (Oracle only has options for black or white). Came out nice and I used plastic epoxy to glue them back on. Confident at least those 4 letters ain’t popping off again.

So overall I am pleased. Would I do it again? In today’s market, “yes”. Because having the ability to say something other than Bronco outweighed any negatives Oracle brought to the table.

But if somebody else come’s out with the choice of ”A-Z” letters that are opaque lit instead of backlit…I would jump on them.

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[nametaken]

Looks cool, $40.00 per letter, ouch

 

[WestTex]

My wife took our bronco through a car wash and the one of the O's popped off just like yours did when you dropped it. So not to happy with the durability, but looks like it just broke the glue bond, so should be an easy fix. I'm curious did you just put glue around the edges of the letter? it looks like that's all that holds it on

 

[Figmo]

My wife took our bronco through a car wash and the one of the O's popped off just like yours did when you dropped it. So not to happy with the durability, but looks like it just broke the glue bond, so should be an easy fix. I'm curious did you just put glue around the edges of the letter? it looks like that's all that holds it on

Yup - just glued the edges. Can’t recall the name of the glue I used - but I do remember specifically buying a package that stated it was for plastics. I’m leaning toward it being a flavor of JB Weld that listed plastics on the package. I remember having to mix 2 agents together.

The good news is that - here we are - just about 1 year to the day from the OP above….and all of my letters are still doing OK. So they survived drenching rains, carwashes, the heat of last summer, the sub-zero temps of a Montana winter. On road. Off road. And they are not coming apart. And all still light up.

So hopefully we’ll both get a long lifespan out of these. Damn well better for what they cost.

 

[WestTex]

We have had them a little over a year as well, so at least they lasted this long. This was the first time it has ever been washed in a pull through car wash with brushes, which I warned her never to do haha

Thanks for the quick response

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